Learn about the traditionally untold stories of the Civil Rights Movement, specifically the role of women of color. Speakers will share reflections on their work in the Oregon Civil Rights Movement — their struggles and greatest memories — as well as advice for young activists on how to get involved and what they can do to make a positive difference in their local communities.

Racial violence was particularly significant in the nationalization of civil rights, as evidenced by the creation of the NAACP in the wake of northern migration and the racial violence that ensued in the first decade of the twentieth century. That process of violence, migration, and organization connects places such as Mississippi and Oregon, and telling stories about this violence — whether it occurred in Mississippi or in Marshfield, Oregon — linked Black communities and fueled the rise of a national civil rights movement. Join us for a discussion between historians working in two corners of the country, as they explore the ways violence and storytelling have connected those places to the national movement for equality.

Recently named by the New York Times as one of the 100 notable books of 2017, Richard Rothstein’s The Color of Law A forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America is an explosive, alarming history that finally confronts how American governments in the twentieth century deliberately imposed residential racial segregation on metropolitan areas nationwide. Join us for an evening with the author, who will discuss the findings described in his new book and will hold a post-lecture conversation with Allan Lazo. Presented by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon.

African Americans who lived in Portland during the twentieth century built homes and communities that provided connection among family and friends, and space for growth and learning as government policies, realtors’ practices, and beliefs expressed by dominant Whites often restricted where and how Black people could live. The Fair Housing Act of 1968 challenged some of those discriminatory practices. This panel of Black Portlanders, who were all youths during this time period, will offer first-hand reflections on ways their families and neighbors built and sustained the meaning of home and community across the decades of the twentieth centuries, despite the local and national blocks that sought to prevent them from doing so.

Experience Oregon History

The Oregon Historical Society is dedicated to making Oregon's long, rich history visible and accessible to all. For more than a century, the Oregon Historical Society has served as the state's collective memory, preserving a vast collection of artifacts, photographs, maps, manuscript materials, books, films, and oral histories. Our research library, museum, digital platform, educational programming, and historical journal make Oregon's history open and accessible to all. We exist because history is powerful, and because a history as deep and rich as Oregon's cannot be contained within a single story or point of view.